Arts, Briefly

Compiled by Lawrence Van Gelder

Published: January 31, 2006

House of Commons to Vote on Bill to Outlaw Insults

The British House of Commons is to vote today on legislation that would make it an offense to incite religious hatred through the use of insulting or abusive words, The Observer of London reported. But the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, proposed by the Labor Party, has been depicted by actors, atheists and Christians as a restriction on freedom of speech. Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also oppose it, and some Laborites may join them. Among the opponents are Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theater; Ian McEwan, the writer; Philip Pullman, a best-selling children's writer; and the comedian Rowan Atkinson, right. Calling for rejection of the bill, Mr. Atkinson said, ''I am deeply concerned for all performers and entertainers, because the climate in which we work will be very different if the government gets its way.'' Evan Harris, a Liberal Democrat spokesman, said the vote would be ''the last and best chance for Parliament to protect freedom of speech.'' He said ''the chilling effect of this new offense would be to stifle free expression and set community against community -- each seeking to prosecute others for perceived insults.''

Oops!

Here was this fellow whose shoelace had become undone. And here were these priceless Qing Dynasty vases. The site was a stairway at Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, where the three 300-year-old vases, donated in 1948, had been on display on a windowsill for 40 years. The unidentified man slipped on the shoelace, tried to steady himself as he tumbled down the stairway and brought the vases crashing down, the BBC reported. ''They are in very, very small pieces, but we are determined to put them back together,'' said Margaret Greeves, the assistant director of the museum. Duncan Robinson, director of the museum, said, ''Whilst the method of displaying objects is always under review, it is important not to overreact and make the museum's collections less accessible to the visiting public.'' As for the man with the undone shoelace, a spokesman for the museum said, ''An ambulance was called, but the visitor left the museum on foot having been seen by paramedics and staff first-aiders.'' Mr. Robinson said, ''It was a most unfortunate and regrettable accident, but we are glad that the visitor involved was able to leave the museum unharmed.''

Canada Reprimands Imus For Insulting Muslims

Canada's broadcasting watchdog has asserted that Don Imus, below, had been ''disparaging, insulting and abusive'' when he called Muslims ''brainwashed'' and ''stinking animals'' during a broadcast of ''Imus in the Morning'' on MSNBC Canada on Nov. 12, 2004, Reuters reported. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which rarely judges American programs broadcast in Canada, said Mr. Imus's comments breached regulations introduced in 1990. It said it was responding in particular to a written complaint that asked why it had imposed restrictions on the distribution of Al Jazeera in Canada to forestall slurs on Jews or Israel and not placed ''similar restrictions on a service such as the American MSNBC service.'' But the commission said that because MSNBC issued a formal apology in 2004 in response to complaints in the United States, it would not consider ''any restrictions on the program in question or on MSNBC in general at this time.''

Farewell to the 'Chief'

Television ratings are like political polls. Declining numbers don't augur well. Take the case of ''Commander in Chief.'' After its last original episode is broadcast on Feb. 28, the ABC drama, starring Geena Davis, above, as the first female president, is going to drop out of sight, at least for a while. Beginning on March 7, it will be replaced by a comedy, ''Sons & Daughters.'' ABC said yesterday that ''Commander in Chief'' would return in the spring, but no date was announced. The show attracted 16 million viewers to its premiere in September, but last Tuesday, steamrollered by ''American Idol,'' it drew only 10.33 million.

Screen Actors Guild Awards

Just when it seemed as if the cowboy romance ''Brokeback Mountain'' would gather every award in its path, it ran into ''Crash.'' Directed and co-written by Paul Haggis, this drama of 36 hours in Los Angeles, where a minor traffic accident leads to racial confrontations and murder, won the Screen Actors Guild award for ensemble cast on Sunday night in Los Angeles. Other awards went to Philip Seymour Hoffman, named best actor for his portrayal of the author Truman Capote in ''Capote''; Reese Witherspoon, right (with her costar, Joaquin Phoenix), best actress for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash biography ''Walk the Line''; Paul Giamatti, best supporting actor for his portrayal of the manager of the boxer James J. Braddock in ''Cinderella Man''; and Rachel Weisz, best supporting actress for her portrayal of the doomed wife in ''The Constant Gardener.''

Israel Reacts to 'Munich'

After months of furor over its political message, the Steven Spielberg film ''Munich'' encountered something perhaps worse when it opened in Israel over the weekend: bored critics, Reuters reported. Hostile reviews focused more on cinematic technique than on the question of sympathy toward the Palestinians who killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. The conservative Jerusalem Post called the film ''muddled, inept, offensive -- and boring to boot.'' The liberal Haaretz said, ''There is something slovenly about the way in which Spielberg constructs the film, a slovenliness that leaks into the directing style itself.'' Shirit Gal, the publicist in Israel for ''Munich,'' said yesterday that about 25,000 tickets had been sold. She called the number ''good,'' although Hollywood blockbusters have drawn as many as 35,000 people on an opening weekend in Israel. ''The Secret Life of Words,'' an English-language film starring Tim Robbins in a story of people dealing with painful pasts, won the prizes for best film and best director (Isabel Coixet of Spain) when the Goyas, Spain's answer to the Oscars, were handed out in Madrid yesterday, Reuters reported. Woody Allen's British-produced ''Match Point'' was named best European film